thepaulfisherblog : diary of a serial entrepreneur

YouTube blocked in Brazil

2007-01-08T12:18:00.000Z

Reports are that the Brazilian courts have actually got their way and managed to get YouTube blocked throughout the majority of the country.

Model Daniela Cicarelli had taken YouTube to court and demanded over $100,000 in damages for every day her sex tape stayed up on the Google owned site. Unfortunately the publicity simply increased the reposting of the clip by users, and Cicarelli demanded that YouTube be shut down until the clip is permanently removed.

YouTube is governed by US law, and the court ruling had no chance of being actioned, however it seems that the Brazilian authorities might have intervened. It is being reported that BrasilTelecom, the most popular phone company in South Brazil, has blocked the site at DNS level. The Sao Paulo Supreme Court has denied issuing an order to block the site, despite the fact that another large carrier, Embratel, receiving a letter from a judge to block the domain www.youtube.com.

The OMM team are currently working on a mpg conversion tool to enable users to download the replay of images as a movie file, specifically to target sites such as YouTube. It seems however that our 100 odd Brazilian members might have to stick with Google Video instead.

First poster snapshot - get your image ready

2007-01-04T10:44:00.000Z

We're taking the first high resolution snapshot of the growing OMM on Monday 8th January at 12:00 GMT. This snapshot will be used in promotional marketing and to produce several large posters that will be able from the site.

Although each image will be very small, you might like to get your picture ready. In addition, selected images will be shown closer up, so again – prepare those images.

Consider yourself warned !!

Numbercrunching : An update on some key figures

2007-01-03T18:38:00.000Z

Today we've hit some numbers worth celebrating, so let's break them down. Firstly, we've just served the one millionth page of this website. To date, 168,000 unique visitors have looked at 1,000,000 pages on the OMM website.

The 15,600 images currently making up the OMM have now been replayed over 100,000 times – that's an average of 6 replays per member.

Over 15,000 comments have been posted by members, with the most popular image notching up just under the 200 comments (well done Angeli).

Lastly, the OMM currently forms a circular 'nebula' that would measure 8 meters in diameter if printed - just over the average height of a two storey house.

New MySpace widget

2006-12-11T23:38:00.000Z

I've felt for a long time that I've never really tapped in to the potential of MySpace. Millions and millions of people use it every day, and yet we've only ever had a trickle of visitors through to the One Million Masterpiece, despite many many links on MySpace profiles and blogs.

So I want to have another crack. Eamonn has come up with a little widget that can be used in MySpace profiles and comments to replay images from the OMM at high speed, and allows people to click through to the user profile.

To insert the widget, visit the profile of the picture that you wish to paste, and copy the code in the Myspace Widget box. By clicking in the box all the necessary text will be highlighted ready to be copied.

Paste this code into your MySpace profile or comment, or on any other web page or blog and voila, a cool little animated picture.

First job is to try and seed MySpace with as many examples of the widget as possible, which is where our users come in. We are going to contact every opt-in member that has a MySpace account and ask them to post their picture. I'll report back on the success of this in due course!
Enjoy!

Growing growing growing...

2006-12-07T12:01:00.000Z

The One Million Masterpiece is growing strong. With yesterday's record day of 7,000 unique visitors and well over 2,000 new members we received a huge boost in our aim to break the current world record by the end of the year. With this in mind I thought it might be nice to look back at where this all started.

Just four months ago, at the end of the first week of its life, the OMM was made up of around 300 pictures. At that point the picture looked more like a little patchwork quilt, although the notorious black squares were already becoming a feature of the community. For two months progress was slow, and it took a couple of months to hit the 1,000 member mark. Around two months ago the project saw a shift in approach. Following feedback and intensive discussion the mandatory donation was dropped, and two levels of membership were created. The result was an immediate acceleration in the growth of the picture.

Yesterday we smashed the 10,000 barrier, and the 'OMM Nebula' grew by over 2,000 mini pictures. With more website features coming on line this month, we can all look toward breaking the official world record of 25,297 contributors some time soon.

Richard Branson meets…

2006-11-27T22:22:00.000Z

My good friend Lee met Richard Branson today to interview him for a new web project he’s working on. The meeting is cool enough, but it’s the apparent ease that he got to meet him with that intrigues me.

I’ve been leaving celebrity sign-ups for the One Million Masterpiece to PR people, but now I’m thinking I might just try the personal approach. If I arm myself with a camera, why don’t I just go out there, meet these people and ask them to donate a picture on the spot. If they don’t they’ll look pretty crappy on screen, and if they do well, hey that’s more great publicity.

In all honesty I’m so busy that I doubt my plan will come to anything, but I’ll make some enquiries over the next few days and see if I can set anything up. Be warned celeb people!

Renderosity community backs OMM

2006-11-24T09:53:00.000Z

After working with Lillian at Renderosity for a few weeks we finally put out a press release and established some marketing on the Renderosity site. At the moment we have a front page news piece, banner ad rotation and placement in their Thanksgiving newsletter.

Apart from all the new members we've signed up, the Renderosity alliance has also led to a few other high profile links that are fueling a growth in traffic to the site. Yesterday we achieved over 3,000 unique visitors and a huge number of sign-ups, although this was offset by the deletion engine, which is removing 5 blank accounts per hour. BTW this is why my massive drop in membership never materialised, as Eamonn had thought ahead and decided to delete accounts slowly in order to allow new members to take up the slack.

So anyway, we all welcome Renderosity to the team. To find out more about them and their support of OMM read their press release.

Join the OMM link and editorial team!

2006-11-15T21:12:00.000Z

Do you have a spare 10 minutes a week that you could dedicate to helping out at the One Million Masterpiece? We're looking for a crack team of web users to help us generate and record important inbound links to the website.

OK, maybe not a crack team, but a very willing team who can contact websites and request links to the project. The idea is to centralise the process using a collaborative spreadsheet, and in that way make sure that we're being as efficient as possible and not all requesting the same links.

And while we're at it, we also require a newsletter editor who can compile a newsletter each month. Most of the content will come from blog posts that will just need re-writing in a user-friendly style. As editor you will be able to put your own plugs into the mailout, which will have a readership of 000's.

As a non-profit venture we really do need all the help we can get, so please be generous! If you are in a position to help at all, please do let me know.

Usual address – hello@millionmasterpiece.com or post a comment here.

What happened to the mass deletion?

2006-11-15T16:32:00.000Z

Today's hot topics...

Deletion engine
Renderosity
Spanish website
technorati

Deletion engine

Avid readers will know about the deletion engine. So there I was, braced for a huge fall in member numbers, but for some reason it didn't happen. I'm going to get on to Eamonn about this as it's either me getting the wrong end of the stick, or something has broken.

In fact, traffic has been surging in the past few days. A few weeks ago we improved the Googleability of the pages - mainly the profiles and the forums. Well it seems that this has been picked up by Google, who are now delivering more and more visitors per day.

Renderosity

A while back I also mentioned an agreement I was working on with Renderosity, the arts community. On Friday we came to a formal arrangement, so now I'm really looking forward to getting some cross promotion going. To have access to a community like this will be so important in breaking the official world record, which I really want achieve over the Christmas break.

We're going to try and get a mail out to all Renderosity members next week, before the US Thanksgiving weekend.

Spanish website

I never thought translating a website would be so difficult. I've found out that the Spanish language roughly doubles the length of any English sentence, which plays havoc with the layout of a website. Also, the amount of hidden text within a site is extraordinary (think error messages, confirmation emails etc etc). It's taken two weeks longer just to get the text on the site but we're finally there - see a sneak preview here.

Technorati

I try not to be swayed too much by stats, but I'm really quite annoyed with technorati. My old blog address (thepaulfisherblog.com) had a good number of incoming links and was rated well by technorati. I had to change the address due to server problems, but made sure I properly redirected the domain. Unfortunately my technorati rating has plunged, as has my Google PR.

Why am I bothered? I don't know? I watch the major site indicators regularly because of the OMM and I think I'm just becoming obsessed.

Registration email problem

2006-11-13T10:36:00.000Z

A few Monday morning treats to wake up to. Firstly a deluge of emails from people not receiving registration emails for the One Million Masterpiece. Eamonn had worked out the problem yesterday but the message didn’t get through to me until this morning.

So it looks like all outbound mail is not being sent. I’m awaiting an update on the situation but am hoping to resolve it by the end of the day. Anyone affected will receive their email this afternoon.

I’ve also got a major problem to fix regarding a plan I have for the restaurant business, but that story is for another day.

Some OMM website stats

2006-11-10T10:56:00.000Z

Time to reflect on some OMM website stats.

At present the background traffic to the site is between 1,500 and 2,000 unique visitors per day with one quarter being returning members. According to SEOmoz we now have 20,969 links pointing to our domain - an excellent number. About 20% of our traffic comes from Google, primarily through people searching for a persons name and finding their profile on our site.

Membership is knocking on the door of 8,000 people, but, and it's a big fat mama BUT, that number isn't going to last... We started a deletion engine running 13 days ago, with everyone owning a blank image at the time being contacted to let them know that they needed to draw a picture within 14 days. These these guys now have just 24 hours before their accounts are wiped.

I'm pretty nervous about this as it's going to reduce the total number of members significantly. After the mass delete tomorrow we could be back down to 6,000, so anyone that's received an email warning - log in and draw something now - ANYTHING - PLEASE !!! :)

According to Technorati there are 233 links to us from 101 blogs. I noticed that the last entry was by Linzi Stoppard, the violinist (?) extraordinaire. Thanks Linzi, I know your Myspace site is extremely popular and so this is bound to help us out significantly. Now everyone, go buy her album...

Long long road…

2006-11-10T09:17:00.000Z

So the journey continues. I’ve had quite a difficult October so I though a pretty long entry was in order.

OMM

The One Million Masterpiece is just coming out of a pretty big development sweep that has changed the registration gateway, playback tools, drawing tools etc etc. The last major event in November will be the launch of the Spanish site which should take place early next week.

The most difficult element of this whole project has been the funding model. Because of the limited amount of time we couldn’t fundraise before the project began, and therefore we have been putting budgets together for a moving target. An example is the Schools Programme. We were confident of grant funding for this area and so based all our assumptions on this. However, having been led up the garden path a little I received news in October that we weren’t going to be supported.

By this point the Schools Programme was fully developed on paper and was simply awaiting execution. All of the plans had to be frantically reworked and a new financing route found – all in the space of two weeks.

I must admit that this project is also making my normally good natured personality somewhat bitter at the complete lack of support people have out there for charity projects. I’m not talking about the people joining the project and submitting artwork, I’m talking about the businesses and individuals who we are asking for help, support and expertise. It seems that for every 100 people we ask for help, just one will give us the time of day.

Come on people – this is a one off event and a chance to do something fantastic. Let’s see a little passion and energy. Take a risk on doing something good for a change!

I’ve got an interview with a magazine lined up for Monday, and I’ve heard that Elle magazine will be featuring us in February. I’m also working with the artistic community Renderosity on a join promotion deal that could bring in a significant wave of members and could help us reach the world record in time for Christmas.

Moving house

On an entirely more positive note, I have a new house. Having made the move down to Kent in September we’ve been living with family awaiting our house sale to complete. It finally went through on the 1st November, and we immediately sent round a team of builders to knock it in to shape. It’s currently gutted, but we’r still hoping to move in within two weeks.

New image playback tools

2006-11-06T16:51:00.000Z

Hooray! Eamonn has just finished an upgrade to the replay tools that will make replaying images within the One Million Masterpiece much easier. We've now got three replay speeds, a pause button and a rewind.

The cool thing about the new tools is that they allow you to view the building of images much more quickly, enabling you to find embedded messages, secrets and disguarded pictures more easily. There are loads of pictures out there with hidden content within them - take Laura's Halloween pumpkin that makes a festive appearance half way through her drawing, or Craig's secret declaration of love.

BTW this beautiful image was supplied by Vicky Chan.

What is a Full Member?

2006-10-30T09:16:00.000Z

While it is free to join the One Million Masterpiece, you will need to make a very small donation to one of our partner charities to enjoy full membership.

So what do full members get?

Firstly, full members are guaranteed to be included in the final One Million Masterpiece picture, and their work will definitely be displayed in the final exhibition. Free members do stand a good chance of being included, however when we reach the one million mark new donating members will begin to replace free members within the final picture.

Secondly, full members are eligible to win tickets to our unveiling event next year. We will be choosing twenty members who will each win a pair of all-expenses paid tickets to attend the launch party in London. It doesn't matter where you are in the world, we'll get you there!

Pairs of tickets will be given away for several different reasons, for example member who has referred the most friends and family (see our Leaderboard), members who have made a major contribution to the project, or members who have a special story to tell.

Further details of how these tickets can be won will follow in early 2007.

You can become a full member of the project with a donation of just $6.50. Donations can be made via Paypal or Debit / Credit card by clicking the DONATE NOW button on the right hand side of the screen.

Still here, just working hard

2006-10-23T14:55:00.000+01:00

I've been concentrating on a few other projects over the last few days, hence my absence. There have been some behind-the-scenes changes going on at the One Million Masterpiece, with work on the first internetional site taking place. The full spanish site should be complete by the end of the week.

I've also taken some time to build up Shoutdown little. After working on a web based project that has taken over six months to get online I wanted to see how quickly I could turn around a smaller site. I've been documenting my progress and will post several articles shortly.

Comments comments comments

2006-10-16T17:49:00.000+01:00

We added the comment function to the OMM about a week ago and already there are 500 of them. It's great to see people taking to this function and running with it.

Today we added a great company to our roster of advertisers. DNA 11 Art make original artwork out of your fingerprints and DNA - how cool. The pieces range from $190 to $790 dollars but are totally unique and a real talking point. That sounded like a complete advert but seriously, it is cool isn't it?

Check them out!

Comments anyone?

2006-10-09T09:32:00.000+01:00

Good news - members of the One Million Masterpiece can now leave a comment on any profile page. Think a picture is good, bad or want to say hello to a friend or family member – just leave them a comment.

To post comments you must be logged in to the website. You are only permitted to make one comment per profile, however you can change its content at any time. If you want to discuss a comment, use the forum pages or messaging system.

Leaderboard

2006-10-08T00:24:00.000+01:00

Every time you send out an eCard or invitation from the One Million Masterpiece you are potentially bringing in new members. Every time someone joins the project by following a link from your invitation they are added to your tally – with the top 20 members being displayed on our new leaderboard.

The top 5 referring members will be eligible for entry into an exclusive prize draw to be held next year - full details to follow!

Get your name on the leaderboard by sending out invites and eCards here.

Join our new Myspace group

2006-10-05T11:54:00.000+01:00

Alicia (in Australia) - has just set up a Myspace group for the One Million Masterpiece. JOIN IT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://groups.myspace.com/theonemillionmasterpiece

Top countries

2006-10-04T15:51:00.000+01:00

The top 30 countries contributing to the One Million Masterpiece so far...

1389	32.7%	US
1129	26.6%	UK
318	7.5%	Canada
200	4.7%	Australia
69	1.6%	Germany
48	1.1%	Mexico
46	1.1%	New Zealand
45	1.1%	Netherlands
45	1.1%	Philippines
38	0.9%	Sweden
32	0.8%	Brazil
31	0.7%	Portugal
31	0.7%	Romania
30	0.7%	Singapore
29	0.7%	Finland
29	0.7%	India
28	0.7%	Ireland
28	0.7%	Italy
28	0.7%	Malaysia
26	0.6%	France
25	0.6%	Poland
23	0.5%	Indonesia
22	0.5%	Argentina
22	0.5%	Norway
19	0.4%	Egypt
18	0.4%	Turkey
16	0.4%	Chile
14	0.3%	Belgium
14	0.3%	Bulgaria
14	0.3%	South Africa

2006-10-04T12:43:00.000+01:00

One of the best magazines in the world, Computer Arts, have given us a great plug today.

"Draw your own little picture and contribute to what's intended to be the world's biggest collaborative picture, ever. And it's all for charidee."

Do I think we will hit the one million mark?

2006-10-04T09:53:00.000+01:00

I've had plenty of people asking me how the project is going, and whether I think we can possibly hit the one million. Here are my thoughts on the subject…

Firstly, things are broadly on track. We've had some issues to resolve that any new project would encounter but in general we are doing well. Our projections factor in a slow start, gradual build and huge finish. Here are the estimated end-of-month figures for the next six months:

Sep 06 : 1,340

Oct 06 : 3,709

Nov 06 : 9,033

Dec 06 : 22,006

Jan 07 : 55,641

Feb 07 : 116,170

According to this we are already ahead of ourselves, but of course growth must continue to accelerate if we are to keep up with these numbers. What annoys me is people looking at the figures and just assuming they're impossible. Of course they're nothing more than informed guesswork, but at least I'm putting myself out there every single day trying to achieve them. Instead of criticism, put your energies into helping us out.

I'm someone who thinks in a very flexible way. I’ll change my mind and flex a concept to fit in with new information as it comes along. This is such a large and untested experiment that things might not pan out as expected – but *shock-horror* that is actually OK. It might be that one year isn't enough time, in which case we will extend the timeline. The principle of a unifying global arts project is too important to be constrained by a fairly arbitrary deadline.

Another thing that people might like to know is the events that are planned to boost publicity and numbers. In January we are launching a Schools Programme that will allow children to participate in the project from the classroom. This is a major International sub-project that will allow between 250,000 and 500,000 children to take part. It's requiring a major upgrade to the website platform, and so much of the work taking part at the moment is dedicated to this.

We're also planning a stunning live projection of the developing image for one month in central London early next year. Plans for this are still in an early stage of development but it will further boost the profile of the project.

Alongside these larger elements we are also developing new website features and planning new PR initiatives. For example, we've just opened the project to free registration (currently limited to the first 25,000 members) to help boost numbers and the internet presence of the project.

So let's get back to the original questions. I definitely am please with progress so far, particularly in light of the fact that almost everything so far has been voluntarily donated to us. In addition I'm very confident and excited about what's around the corner. Oh, and yes, I do think we can hit the one million mark.

4,000 calling

2006-10-02T11:46:00.000+01:00

By the way, we are just a few people away from 4,000. Great news but we need to pick up the pace, so if anyone can offer any ad placement or good links LET ME KNOW!!!

Our official Australian representative

2006-10-02T11:39:00.000+01:00

A few weeks ago Alicia contacted me to offer her help. Offers of help like this are great and has been on of the joys of working on a project like this.

Most offers turn into some small contribution, but Alicia has been much more proactive than most and is a very welcome addition to the team. In a week or so she's already made up a couple of poster / flyers to use at art fairs and to post up in internet cafes. Feel free to download and use.

B/W Poster 1
B/W Poster 2

She's also been busy getting links to the website (including some local radio plugs), securing some free banner exposure and helping out in the forums. Be sure to say hello to her while you're there and congratulate her on a fabulous job! THANKS ALICIA!!

The eye's have it

2006-09-26T18:02:00.000+01:00

Look at this eye catching montage posted by Pip in the One Million Masterpiece forums

Eye love the way you can compare the different drawing styles when looking at a single subject. Eye watering stuff. OK OK eye'll stop now...

I need some new pictures. Say cheese.

2006-09-26T09:33:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was a bit quieter than I had anticipated. I spent much of the day on the plans for new features for the OMM plus a new homepage design. I thought we might hit 3,000 but we're still not there yet.

I also had to delete our first user this morning. This guy had made up all his details and had drawn an extremely offensive picture. In normal circumstances the image would be retained but obscured from view, however each account must have valid personal details for Guinness World Records to validate the attempt, therefore happily I could delete this guy without a seconds thought.

I also had a Myspace message this morning saying that I needed a new profile picture because my current one makes my head look squashed. Flattery will just get you everywhere! I just love being told that I'm unphotogenic (?) first thing in the morning.

Well sir, your email actually coincides with a requirement for some new photos for a local newspaper, therefore I will actually be changing it in the very near future. Watch this face.

Yes, we can hit 2,000

2006-09-25T09:05:00.000+01:00

We easily reached the 2,000 mark on Friday night. Friday was our best day in terms of traffic with over 16,000 page impressions. Things fell back a little during the weekend but I'm sure we'll be knocking at the door of 3,000 registrations today or tomorrow.

The surge in members have left a lot to do. Firstly, the last few days have actually been a very successful test. We're going to be lifting the minimum donation shortly to enable free sign-up. This has major implications for how this project is funded and how it will raise money for charity, and how the technology works. For example, until now we have been soft on people that have left a blank square, but in future they will have a strict deadline before they are booted out.

I've also received more emails over the weekend with offers of help. In making sign-up free we are going to need all the support we can get from the community so I really appreciate these emails so keep sending them in. There are loads of things that people can do so don't be afraid to ask.

My favorite addition from the weekend:

Can we hit 2,000 tomorrow?

2006-09-22T15:17:00.000+01:00

Wow, so we blasted through 1,000 yesterday, but now I'm thinking we're going to make 2,000 just 48 hours later.

Sign-ups have stormed ahead today, currently standing at 1,693, and at this rate we should definitely top yesterdays new additions. I can't get too excited though, we are still way behind our daily target but at least we're moving in the right direction.

Yesterday we did 10,914 page views and 1,920 unique visitors. Today I reckon we're just going to beat that, mainly because of a link from somethingawful.com and dirty.ru. Both sound really negative but they weren't, promise!

One million is A LOT

2006-09-22T09:16:00.000+01:00

Damn, one million is a lot of people. We hear the word so often nowadays that it's lost it's impact. In my early conversations with people about the One Million Masterpiece project I got a lot of "hey, you'll get one million in a few days" or "maybe you should make it the five million". I knew they were talking crap, which is why I set myself a year. Most people thought a year was too long, but I certainly don't.

Let's do the math. We have 292 days remaining and 998,414 people left to find. That's 3,419 per day or 142 per hour or 2ish per second. That's a lot of people. We've started to make some good progress with a new strategy. Yesterday we recorded 716 new artists and I'm hoping we might top that today - but it's still some way off the 3,419 daily target we need. Plus for every day we don't hit that target, the target gets bigger.

In the past people would say "nobody said it would be easy", but in this case everybody said it would be easy. Don't you just love proving people wrong!

Finally, we've reached the 1,000 mark

2006-09-21T08:42:00.000+01:00

Switched on my computer this morning to a pleasant surprise. All the hard work that Susaye and I put in yesterday paid off and the OMM membership finally broke the 1,000 mark last night. I guess it wasn't such a surprise as I was hoping that it would over night - knowing that most of the deviantArt users are based in the US.

More users means more email invitations flooding out which is a very good thing. One concern that Eamonn raised was that a large amount of our outbound mail is being spam filtered, so we really need to get someone to look at that. If you know anything about the technicalities of email please let me know!

Today I'll be spending much of my day on administration and catching up on things that I've promised people. The last few days I've been working intensely on the Schools Programme we intend launching, and the funding behind it, and so I literally haven't seen the light of day.

deviant Ambassadors

2006-09-20T15:33:00.000+01:00

I want to thank Susaye who's been working with me on getting all you lovely deviant artists helping us out over at the OMM. You guys are ambassadors because you know your digital art, but don't forget that this project is for all abilities. We need you to send out ecards and invitations to everyone you know - artistic or not - and twist their arm to join.

Thanks guys, and thanks yet again Susaye!

Change of server - please update links

2006-09-13T21:35:00.000+01:00

One of the reasons for a lack of posts recently has been Blogger, and its frequent inability to ftp new posts to my server. I've finally given up and moved over to blogspot hosting, so the new address for my blog is http://www.thepaulfisherblog.blogspot.com.

This does mean that I loose my Google PR4, plus my rankings in Technorati have dropped. I'm gutted about this, so please update any links you might have posted to this site!!!

BTW just found a great picture on the OMM, thought I'd drop it in.

Website down, media calling

2006-09-13T17:07:00.000+01:00

What a miserable day. Started off with a big press release going out about the easyBully story, and how we're increasing the security of the website to prevent abuse. Just as it hits the shelves at around 8am the site goes down for some unexplained reason.

Apparently it was off line between 7am and 9am, but was on and off until at least 12pm. I had a few newspapers call, and it was extremely unhelpful not to be able to show them round the site.

So I ended up canceling my entire day to sort out the problems that this outage had caused, and now I'm knackered.

At the moment my four main focuses are

1) The Schools Programme, which requires grant funding (a very long process).

2) Visual projection of the image in London as it's developing. Again involving funding, plus negotiations with the site owner.

3) Marketing. We're finishing off a round of local PR, and some more viral marketing plus general PR work. I'm sick of celebrities and have completely given up on them for the time being.

4) Website developments - of which there are zillions. Eamonn came up with some more good ideas today which I want to expand on when I meet him on monday. I also keep getting emails with good ideas so lots to work on.

Two interesting incidents – explicit content censorship

2006-09-12T12:33:00.000+01:00

Two interesting censorship issues have occurred over the last two months. As an arts project and something that is trying to represent global society, The One Million Masterpiece should be a censorship free zone. That's the way I always envisaged it - if someone wants to draw about a subject then it's a valid viewpoint of this world - good or bad.

However, that just won't wash. We're planning to take this project in to schools from January and there can be zero risk that kids will see anything remotely controversial.

There are already a few systems on the site that protect against explicit content, but recently we've had two breaches. First up was a guy who drew a female nude in an uncompromising position – think of an anatomical sketch that wouldn't be out of place on the men's toilet wall. This is an easy one. The image is marked as adult, and therefore obscured from view on the public website. The image is safe and will be printed in the final artwork, however it cannot be seen by anyone other than the artist.

The second one has been more controversial and involves possible copyright infringement and slander!

Philip Stone recently amended his image from a rather innocuous easyBully (in reference of UK based easyGroup's court cases) to easyC**t. Obviously a massive swing on the offensiveness scale.

Again, our moderators picked this up pretty quickly (in under 15 minutes) and the picture was obscured, but we did receive some complaints. Philip should have marked his image as adult in nature, but he failed to, which led to its publication on the main site.

This is going to be a recurrent issue. When you're dealing with large numbers of people, artistic integrity, freedom of expression and charitable fundraising there will be some flash points. We're already beefing up the security controls in preparation for our Schools Programme but will continue to work on a solution that will keep everyone happy

The ups and downs of website traffic

2006-09-04T16:41:00.000+01:00

Time for a review of how the The One Million Masterpiece has been performing traffic wise.

After the initial boom created around launch, primarily off the back of the BBC online coverage, there was a steady decline. Of course there was - because this is a totally new website with very few supporting links. At that time (we're talking the end of July) we had around 10 inbound links, which any SEO pundit will tell you is low. However, these links were all from the big boys (BBC, The Times etc) so Google responded by giving us a generous PR4 within a few days. Nice.

So traffic from these sites has slowly declined, but as that has happened we've been gaining more and more inbound links. As of today the number stands at 782, which is pretty good going. The vast majority of these have been project members posting messages about the website all over the place, and this has had the effect of generating a really stable upward traffic trend.

Within the past few days traffic has ramped up yet again. It looks like this has been caused by links at Blueyonder and Wikipedia, plus a posting at bored.overnow.com which obviously receives far more traffic than I would have assumed.

We're still looking for a break-through on the really big sites, but I'm confident that we're on the right track. People keep asking me whether I'm worried that we wont reach the one million target, but at the moment I'm pretty relaxed. We've got a Schools Programme coming out in January that will make the project accessible to 250,000 kids, plus a range of new features that have only just been implemented which will make viral and word-of-mouth marketing much more powerful.

So we're still plugging away. Loads of things to do as usual, and just not enough time in the day!

Meet Matthew, my brother

2006-09-04T14:43:00.000+01:00

Big thank you to my brother Matt who made this video for the website. I just found it by chance shortly after he'd uploaded it.

You're a star... seriously

2006-09-01T11:49:00.000+01:00

The great think about a big charity project is that it attracts really great people who want to help out. Some really interesting proposals and offers have dropped through my inbox over the past few weeks ranging from some excellent exhibition venues to pr help.

One interesting email this morning was from Jonathan at StellarNight. He is part of a new website that is creating a night's sky of links to high quality web content. Very kindly, he has added the OMM as a very prominent star for free simply because he really likes the concept. Big thank-you Jonathan.

Quit slating Peaches - this isn't a beauty contest.

2006-08-24T11:26:00.000+01:00

No, I'm not talking about looks, style or dress sense - I'm talking art. Peaches Geldof was kind enough to draw a picture for the One Million Masterpiece a few weeks ago, but has since come in for some criticism for her contribution. I know that some people have nothing better to do than comment on other people, but at least do it quietly while the rest of us actually get things done.

The picture in question is a perfectly executed sausage-horse complete with rider and an assortment of names and initials. The image was reproduced by the Times and commented on in a whole range of UK publications. The Daily Mirror's 3am girls described the picture as a kid’s doodle and urged her not to give up the day job. More seriously, numerous forum threads and emails have questioned her position as a Sunday Telegraph arts columnist and slated her £15,000 a year education.

Now I know it's just a bit of fun, and these comments are easily forgotten, but I don’t want them to ride over the main message of the project. The point is that what Peaches has drawn is just as valid as every other picture, because it says something about her. It is a valid viewpoint of this world, and in capturing the way she drew it we have preserved a precious and intimate moment in time - just one of one million that we are attempting to capture.

Equally important is the fact that Peaches has generated the charity a whole load of publicity which is precisely the point in asking her to contribute. In the area so skilfully inhabited by her father, Peaches has shown that she can use her status to publicise global causes and play a role in making this world a slightly better place.

I congratulate Peaches and sincerely thank her for her contribution. And if you still have a problem with her picture then sign-up and tell her yourself - just quit emailing me!

The One Million Masterpiece

Escape to the Lakes

2006-08-22T11:58:00.000+01:00

I managed to escape to the Lake district last week for some much needed family time. Here's me holding Ava on a massive rock...

Ways that you can help

2006-08-10T11:18:00.000+01:00

I've been so please with the offers of help we've received - it seems like there are a lot of people out there who want this project to succeed. We've got a long road ahead, so here are some practical ways that members of the OMM you can help.

1) Build links. Paste you image on forums, on websites, on blogs. If you are a member of a forum, start a thread about the project. If you have a MySpace or similar web presence, use it to display your image and to encourage people to join. Remember to send out bulletins to your friends on these sites!

2) Email friends and family. Remember that anyone is invited to join the One Million Masterpiece. Email your friends and family and ask them to join. Know someone in Timbuktu? Ask them to join too – the more far flung the better.

3) Write a news post or article. Want to write an article about your picture, or comparing different pictures? Think you have something to say about art, digital art, collaborative art? Want to write a how-to guide? All members are welcome to submit stories or articles for publication on the news blog. Send them to hello@millionmasterpiece.com

4) Send messages to your fellow artists. Welcome newcomers, introduce yourself to your neighbours and encourage the black squares to draw something!

5) Join the team. We welcome anyone that wants to get more involved. Maybe you have some expertise that you can share (website design, website marketing, application development, writing, forum administration, link building etc.). We are a voluntary team and would welcome any help offered!

Link: Ways the you can help

More PR and selling restaurants

2006-08-01T11:44:00.000+01:00

I’ve just had a manic few days. The charity project has been steady this week, but we’ve had a bit of a lull in the PR work while we consolidate and regroup. You learn such a lot in such a small space of time when launching something totally new and you need a chance to sit back and evaluate.

One of the main things I’ve learnt is that online media is key to the success of this project. When we get high profile news stories or blog entries traffic and sign-ups spike – and remain strong for days after. Print and radio coverage however have a much softer impact – increasing background traffic but at a lower level. So the focus must be on online coverage, at least for now.

We also need to implement a Paypal donation option. I sent out emails to everyone that had abandoned the sign-up process, and lack of a Paypal option was top of the list.

The other major thing that happened yesterday was the sale of one of my restaurants. At the end of last year a series of external events (retail downturn, major building works, new competitors etc) had made trading very difficult for this shop. For months we have had one very strong shop and one very weak one – and it was a dangerous situation. The sale has dragged on and on, but finally completion took place yesterday.

It’s tempting to sit back and relax when something like this happens, but there’s no time for that! I now need to pour all of my energies into the charity project and start building momentum.

Oh Pooh - the poor teddy!!!

2006-07-26T15:58:00.000+01:00

Someone's gone to the trouble of making a video of their OMM picture, with music and everything!

Favourite pictures of the week

2006-07-25T20:55:00.000+01:00

The growth of the OMM has been steady this week. Of the pictures that have been added, these are my favourites:

And the slightly controversial:

To be honest I think this was a bad idea. I love too many of the pictures to list them here - either for the image itself or the meaning behind it. Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far - keep it up guys.

Website down due to London datacenter failure

2006-07-23T19:47:00.000+01:00

The One Million Masterpiece has been down since around 1pm GMT today because of a massive datacentre failure in London. At the time of writing (7:30 pm GMT) the site is still off-line.

Obviously this is a very serious situation and questions will be raised, however at present the main priority is getting the site back online. This is the latest in a series of third party problems that have affected site since its launch 10 days ago. Luckily this particular problem has coincided with a lull in promotional activity before we step up a gear next week, however we’re still looking at the loss of a large number of sign-ups and donations to charity.

UPDATE

Litterally as I was posting this blog I took a call from Pierce who confirmed that the site was back online at 7:45pm GMT. We're now awaiting the official report from Level3 as to the exact cause of the failure.

Thank you deviantArt and Tyler

2006-07-21T19:54:00.000+01:00

Firstly, deviantArt posted a news item about the project, and sent over a whole load of US traffic last night. They actually highlighted some bugs in the payment gateway that were preventing international sign-ups which was good to spot early.

Secondly, another young entrepreneur who I really respect posted a link on his excellent blog tylercruz.com. Thanks Tyler!

Loads of other bloggers have mentioned the project, and I thank you all too for the support. It’s been a good day traffic wise with a much less of a UK focus. My very close friend Adam even managed to sign up from Bolivia which is a great sign (hi Adam :)

I’ve had reports that there are problems with @millionmasterpiece.com email, and therefore we haven’t received any mail directed to the site addresses. If you have got in touch please bear with us – we will get back to you!!

Heart FM Interview, and the train journey from hell

2006-07-20T09:34:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I popped down to London for an interview at Heart FM on the hottest July day since 1911 (or something like that). The interview was OK, not bad for a first stab in the studio. I’m definitely not going to listen back to the interview though.

The journey back home was hell however. The announcer kindly told us that the carriage temperature was 47oC, which on a packed rush hour train is NOT GOOD. It was hell, and I’m surprised there were no fatalities. What’s more, the guy sitting next to me was drinking COFFEE. COFFEE? I don’t care why. I don’t care what perverse pleasures some people want to enjoy in the comfort of their 47oC house. The heat of the cup was literally burning the side of my face, and the site of steam almost tipped me into a coma.

To further add to the insult, the train company had decided to put up an advert for an air conditioning company, in an un-air conditioned train, right in front of me. Why would they do this?

Be my MySpace friend

2006-07-18T20:54:00.000+01:00

Surely I have more than 6 friends? If your on MySpace, please add me as a friend! http://www.myspace.com/million_paul

My first ever radio interview

2006-07-18T16:51:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I did my first ever radio inteview for U105 in Belfast. I think it went well. We've also had some good coverage both in print and online. Lee is keeping the site updated on our new Press Archive

Site traffic is slowly increase day-by-day - it's approaching 2,000 uniques per day, 8,000 impressions per day, but we've got a long way to go yet!

2006-07-17T14:58:00.000+01:00

Read about the One Million Masterpiece on ActionAid's website here

Protecting children on the One Million Masterpiece

2006-07-17T14:49:00.000+01:00

A few people have been wondering how we plan to protect children against images of an adult nature, and against unwanted attention from other artists.

We’ve thought long and hard about this, prompted by a conversation with the guys at Save the Children and the fact that we want to get schools involved in the project.

So, the systems we have in place are:

1) Under 18’s cannot receive email messages from other users, and have no access to the instant message system

2) Pictures declared as not suitable for children will be blurred in the picture viewer and on the profile pages. The pictures will be printed on the final canvas in full, however online they will remain obscured

3) Artists who fail to declare adult content can be reported to a moderator by any member of the project

4) If these artists fail to comply with the project rules and keep their image declared will find their account deleted.

This project is for everyone, and we welcome pictures of all varieties, so long as these simple rules are followed!

Stray duck forces website to close

2006-07-15T13:29:00.000+01:00

Last night the One Million Masterpiece was closed for five hours because a stray duck caused a hijack alert!

I gave the instruction to close the site at 7pm, and it wasn’t until 12am that I could safely reopen the registration gateway.

Read the full story here

Demonic Java Daemons

2006-07-14T23:25:00.000+01:00

At around 8pm we closed the site to upgrade some bits and pieces. It’s now 11pm and the pressure has been on. Thirty minutes ago I thought the site was in meltdown, with people deleting each others images and accounts being completely wiped. However with a clear head we have identified each problem and are slowly realising that all is not lost!

This isn’t the kind of thing you want to be doing just hours before a major national newspaper run a story about your new website! This is a good lesson however. Never go out and celebrate before the fat lady sings.

Last job for the night is to remove the holding page and were away. The official launch of The One Million Masterpiece is here, 35 minutes early ;)

Don’t forget your copy of the Times tomorrow…

Website traffic

2006-07-14T14:38:00.000+01:00

Pierce, our fantastic server guy over at Net Solutions UK just sent me a traffic update. The minute I activated a link on the holding page at around 11:30 the site went balistic. We're now having a rethink about tomorrow, which could potentially be much much busier.

Sneak preview

2006-07-14T12:57:00.000+01:00

A few media sources were a little early with their coverage, so I’ve just made the decision to open the site early. My only concern is the drawing software, which hasn’t been upgraded to the excellent new version. Never mind, that upgrade will still take place over night tonight.

Following a morning piece in the Metro, the site has just hit BBC Online http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5179568.stm and sign-ups have gone through the roof. Remember guys that all this money is going to charity, so keep giving guys!!

And the winner of the MP challenge is…

2006-07-13T20:12:00.000+01:00

..Brian Binley MP (Conservative) for Northampton South. Well actually it isn’t much of a win at all. The nearest appointment I can make to talk with him is October!!

This is just ridiculous, so I’m going to find another way to get hold of him. Perhaps I’ll find out where he’s going to be over the next few weeks and gate crash.

Come on Sally, you can do better than that?

Every last second

2006-07-13T20:07:00.000+01:00

There’s just over 24 hours until the site goes live and we’ve got some frantic work ahead of us. The drawing software continues to be the biggest problem, and it’ll be a race against time to get the new version ready. There’s also a load of other small features that need to be enabled, and I still have a massive list of bugs to go through.

On top of that I’ve just heard that our payment gateway provider Nochex have scheduled a maintenance blackout between 11am and 12pm on Sunday. I’ve appealed to them to postpone but they are adamant that the upgrade needs to go ahead. I’m going to try and get hold of their CEO Martin tomorrow, although I think he’s on holiday!

Public launch :15 July 2006

2006-07-05T19:16:00.000+01:00

After a series of great technology and PR meetings today we’ve decided on Saturday 15 July as the official project launch date. So far the beta testing period has seen just over 50 sign-ups and a ton of bugs come to the surface, plus some interesting celebrity contributors

The MP challenge – Binley v’s Keeble

2006-07-04T18:15:00.000+01:00

I’ve contacted two of my local MP’s to request a meeting about the charity project. I want to explain the concept to them in the hope that they’ll spread the word in Westminster and get some high profile contributors.

So, on Tuesday 4^th I put in a request for a meeting with Brian Binley for Northampton South (Conservative) and Sally Keeble for Northampton North (Labour). So far, neither have got back to me.

In my eyes this is now a challenge. I’m literally on the road which divides their two constituencies, so in my mind these guys both represent me and they are both fighting for my vote. Who’s going to contact me first?

Winner to be announced shortly…

MySpace BackTrack

2006-07-03T11:49:00.000+01:00

First time round I just didn’t get MySpace, but now I’m starting to warm to it. I think the problem was that I was trying to use it solely to blog. Blogger is definitely better for blogging – and so it should – but MySpace is a social network. Without any MySpace friends I couldn’t see the appeal, but now I'm starting to realised the potential.

It started when I added Cleo from Golden Goose PR. Looking though her list of friends, I clicked on the Radio1 DJ’s JK and Joel. Then I noticed that they had my brothers Girlfriend Jade listed, and from her account I found my brother and a whole load of other people I recognised.

Now I’m starting to want to find more friends for my list, and to do that I’m thinking about how to make MyParticularSpace more attractive with some custom HTML. Hey presto, and addiction is forming.

My travelling desk

2006-06-19T14:03:00.000+01:00

After the Bill Gates interview that exploded the sale of flat screen monitors (because he had a triple screen setup on his desk), I thought I’d share a shot of my current desk. It’s compact, and neatly fits onto the drop down tray of most trains and commercial airliners.

Yes, I’ve been doing a lot of travelling over the past few days as the project steams towards launch. I promise a comprehensive update in a couple of days when the servers are up and running…

May UK retail sales good, and bad?

2006-06-09T07:31:00.000+01:00

Two news headlines that have just popped up on my Google news bar have just grabbed my attention:

Rainy weather dampens UK retail sales in May after bumper April

Rainy weather dampened sales on the UK high street in May, in a dramatic slowdown after a bumper month in April, a key survey from the British Retail Consortium showed.

Like-for-like sales -- which strips out the impact of changes in floor space -- rose by 3.6 pct from the same month a year ago, down from the 4 year high of 6.8 pct in April.

Compared with:

Retail sales buoyant in May

UK retail sales grew at a heady annual pace of 6.2% in May, signalling a continuing bounce-back in consumer spending, as the dominant services sector continued to expand and recruit strongly.

Both talking about the UK, both talking about May, both talking about Retail sales. Who’s right? You decide.

Organisation for creative people

2006-06-07T10:00:00.000+01:00

I’m a big fan of systems that boost productivity. You know the kind of thing – using lists, pda’s Outlook, wall-charts, folders. Being a creative person I tend to leave trails of junk behind me, so I try really hard to keep myself organised and productive using systems.

The general rule has it that I set up a new system which keeps me organised for around three weeks. I then only realise that my new system has failed when I stumble across a book, article or blog post on a new organisational system, which prompts me to repeat the cycle once again.

However, since January I’ve been much better that usual. I really think that, this time, I’ve found a system which suits me. It seems like a shameful plug, but the book which turned me around was Organizing from the Right Side of the Brain : A Creative Approach to Getting Organized

My biggest problem has always been starting a new task before completing the last. With the help of the book, I figured out that the biggest contributor to this behaviour was phone calls. A phone call is something that demands immediate attention, and diverts your mind from one task to another. My second major failing was that, while on a call, I would promise to react immediately. This action seals the fate of the previous task, which has now been superseded by the new requirement.

So the first thing I needed to change was the way I dealt with calls. Firstly, if I am engaged in any task, I will not answer the phone to unarranged calls. I will glance at the caller display, but I will not answer. Please do not be offended if you’re trying to call me and I don’t answer. This is the way it MUST be, otherwise I simply won’t be able to cope with the workload I have. Of course there are about five numbers which I will always take the call – think my wife, Ava’s nursery, etc. I ask everyone else to leave a message. When I complete a task (or file it away for the day), I will listen to messages and respond accordingly.

Secondly, I have encouraged the use of email. Email for me is perfect, because I can respond in my own time. I do not use email as a form of chat system – as anyone will know that’s tried to have an email conversation with me. Also, I do not do instant messaging, which is just as disruptive as phone calls (plus I type too slowly!).

Third, I am more realistic in my promises. I now use Outlook to organise my day, and I can easily see what kind of turnaround I can give to a task. Of course if someone needs something urgently that’s fine, it just means I will have to reshuffle my other tasks.

I guess I could summarise my system into 4 main points:

1) I do not answer the telephone to unarranged calls
2) Email is my primary communication method
3) I use Outlook to schedule appointments and calls
4) I transfer the days Outlook tasks to an A4 hardback notebook in the form of a to-do list.

My aim is to clear this list every day, but uncompleted tasks either roll over to the next day, or a rescheduled in Outlook and crossed off the list.

This system is really working for me, but I can clearly see that it wouldn’t work for everyone. Most people probably have to answer calls, otherwise they might miss a sale or a business proposal. I guess the point is that you need to look at your own circumstances, identify you own weak points, and build a system to compensate for them.

Anyway, another day begins and I’m running 8 minutes late…

Calm before the storm

2006-06-04T22:32:00.000+01:00

Knowing that the week ahead will be one of the most challenging of my life, I made the most of the warm weather over the weekend for some much needed family time.

Of course I didn’t escape work entirely, but I managed to set up office in the garden so it wasn’t too bad.

The week ahead will see most of the crucial deals completed on the project. By Friday we’ll have the hosting, the payment gateway, and the technology platform. From where I’m standing that feels a long way off, but I know that all the wheels are in motion and, like it or not, this thing will be ready for the following Monday.

Social entrepreneur?

2006-06-04T04:43:00.000+01:00

I was selling the charity project on the phone earlier, and the guy I was talking to referred to me as a social entrepreneur. Ive never been called this before, and it got me thinking about entrepreneurship in general.

Being described as an entrepreneur has always been my label of choice. I certainly don't feel like a business man - they are far too dull, far too old, and they wear suits!

But what does being an entrepreneur mean to me? It certainly isn't about money. I really don't think that true entrepreneurial spirit is born out of the desire for riches. Hell, if I wanted money I'd have joined a graduate training program for a London bank (as if they'd have me!).

For me its about creating something. It's about rising to a challenge. It's about putting ideas out into the world, and not letting anything stop you from realising them. There is certainly an element of control about it. A desire to control your own world, and your own future. I've always rather recklessly believed that I have control over everything in my life.

If these are the primary drivers for entrepreneurialism, then the only difference between your average entrepreneur and a social entrepreneur is the end result. One is commercial gain, and the other is social gain. The creativity, the drive, the skills and the internal motivation remain the same.

Certainly for me, I feel no differently about this charity project than any other business I've started. They have all totally engaged me, fired me up and allowed me to challenge myself and the world around me. In my eyes there's no alternative - what else could possibly make you feel so alive?

Why MySpace is MyGrandmaSpace

2006-06-04T04:00:00.000+01:00

I’ve been keeping a project blog on Myspace now for a few weeks, and I have to say that I just don’t get it.

My major issue is the lack of customisation possible, particularly on the blog pages. There are a few tiny tweaks that you can make, but they pale into insignificance when compared to blogger. The name implies that this is the place on the web that you can make your own, but it is no more my own space than my grandmother’s house!

So I’m going to have a re-jig. First, I’m going to move this website back onto the blogger servers, just so that I know it will cope should the charity project site send over a decent amount of traffic. Second, I’ll implant my blog posts from MySpace. Third, I’m going to apply a new template, and lastly I’ll change all of my links etc.

It’s 4am on Sunday morning and I can’t sleep. Hell, you’ve gotta find something to do!

Weekend sunshine

2006-06-02T17:15:00.000+01:00

It's Friday afternoon and the sun is finally shining over the UK. In fact its such a beautiful afternoon that I'm packing it in for the day and getting outside. Normally I will work from 8am until 5pm, grab some food, do another stint until 9pm when I call it a day. But today I just cant resist that sunshine.

Of course it will be back to work tomorrow, particularly being so close to the project launch, but work always feels different over the weekend. Less pressure, fewer phone calls, more creativity and a much higher level of productivity.

Breakthrough

2006-06-01T19:49:00.000+01:00

Today is our official launch, except, well, we haven't launched. In fairness, it was always going to be a soft launch, with a further three week period for testing and special guest sign-ups, but the fact remains that we haven't managed it!

The problems have stemmed from the donation gateway. To join the project all new members need to make a very small donation to one of our five partner charities. These charities are all international in nature, and cover some of the most important concerns facing our society today. At the last minute on Friday I was let down by our chosen payment gateway provider. Our backup plan swung into action, but that put us five weeks behind.

I've spent the last three days frantically searching for a quicker solution. It's been the usual think-outside-the-box stuff, looking at every possible alternative. Now I think Ive found it.

I've just had a chat with the MD of a company based here in the UK who has a possible solution. Fingers crossed well be able to reach a deal tomorrow, and all being well the gateway will be operational by mid next week. If that's the case, our new launch date will be June 12, just 12 days behind schedule. That's not bad, considering the technology weve developed to power this thing.

Holiday on the M1

2006-05-27T15:19:00.000+01:00

I'm sitting on the M1 motorway. The rain is hammering on the window, and I'm not going anywhere fast. The day started so well. It's Saturday and I've decided to take a day off. My brother is having a party in Maida Vale to celebrate his move from Xfm to BBC Radio 1 - an extraordinary career move. It's a straight forward 1 hour trip down the motorway, so we decided to pop in and see the family.

Four hours later and were still sitting on the motorway. The weather is terrible and multiple crashes have reduced the road to a car park. The inevitable "shall we turn back" conversation is on its fourth round, but so far we've remained committed to getting there, at least for half an hour before having to travel home.

You never know, it might clear up in a minute.

Hosting and payment gateways

2006-05-23T13:53:00.000+01:00

We're getting nearer to the final hosting solution, and not a moment too soon. I've narrowed it down to two great companies that are putting together hosting proposals for us, in exchange for sponsorship.

The solution will have to cope with some pretty big spikes in traffic. At the end of June we'll be on a whole range of morning tv programmes (like BBC Breakfast) and I'm sure that will propel website traffic pretty high. It's been really tough in predicting what traffic levels will be, but I guess so long as we have rapid scalability we should be OK.

With hosting well underway, the only other major area still to be fully implemented is the donation gateway. Someone is going to need to come along and make this market a whole lot simpler! I've heard that it's much easier in the States, but the UK banking system still seems pretty out of date when it comes to online processing. Our problem is that we will be processing 1 million relatively small transactions, and we can pay no more than 2% of the total amount in fees. You'd think that a kind hearted bank would waive their fees due to the fact that every single transaction is a pure donation to charity, but it turns out that kind and hearted are not words in the banking vocabulary (unless it happens to be Bob Geldoff asking of course).

I'm still waiting to hear back Charity Technology Trust and a range of other backup options we have secured.

Learning to speak "server"

2006-05-18T08:19:00.000+01:00

At a certain level, website hosting is simple. I was a web designer in a past life and back then I just stuck a website on a virtual server and away we went. So the thought of arranging the servers for this project website was not a big deal. I was going out to look for a reputable company to sponsor us, providing what we needed in return for the excellent exposure that would be generated.

But then I realised that the hosting world had adopted a new language, and it wasnt English.

Apparently we need a scalable, load balanced, fire walled, duel server platform with more redundancy that a UK car manufacturer. Good job I left it to the last minute then hey.

Apart from learning to talk server, I also had a go at getting some pictures for the all important website profiles. Unfortunately I havent seen the light of day for several weeks, so they came out really badly.

To disprove the suggestions of vanity, here is my very worst shot. I was laughing so loudly there wasnt a chance of staying in focus.

Myspace blog

2006-05-10T20:55:00.000+01:00

I'm now on countdown to the charity project launch on June 1st. There's still so much to do, but everything is pretty much on plan. I've been advised by several different people to open a blog on Myspace that will just follow the project.

http://blog.myspace.com/million_paul

It looks pretty dull at the moment but I'll see what I can do to improve it. Oh, and the picture is temporary.

I'll be adding movie clips and photos of my progress so it should make an interesting read when everything gets going. I'll continue to post the odd non-project post here, although this thing is going to make up most of my time.

The trouble with blogs

2006-05-05T14:44:00.000+01:00

I had some really really good news yesterday, but contractually I can't talk about it yet. So why be annoying and mention it here? Well I don't know, but I just thought I should.

See, that's the trouble with blogs. The best blogs are access-all-areas, but in the business world you just can't get away with it. I guess I could risk it, but then I might loose a deal, or tip off my competition. Tricky.

I guess this is a entrepreneurial lesson of sorts. When you own businesses you know everything that's happening in your little world, but you have to control how this knowledge filters through to other people. Sometimes you will be several different people in one day, representing multiple faces of the same truth with each person you talk to.

Although I try and keep things open and honest, it's definitely a survival skill that you need to master.

Third PR company lucky?

2006-04-29T17:58:00.000+01:00

In the past few months the charity project has been through more PR agencies than I've had hot dinners. Well, OK, three to be exact - and I like salad.

The first agency kept coming up with crazy ideas that were totally ridiculous. I think our charity concept is pretty unique and will sell itself, but these first guys were treating it like a car that needed to be launched with gimmicks. After several attempts they were ditched.

The second guys we approached responded to our request with a cautionary "we wont deal with you unless you spend xxxx". What a lovely intro - no thanks.

So, during a hectic day in London yesterday I met our latest agency, and I was very glad I took the time to meet them myself. We had a great chat (despite my poor throat still suffering after loosing my voice mid week) and I feel very confident that they understand what I am trying to do. Fingers crossed it's third time lucky!

Retail on the rise, corporate remains sluggish

2006-04-29T17:53:00.000+01:00

I've noticed a slight upward trend in retail business over the past few weeks, and my GOD I hope it continues. Unfortunately this has been somewhat countered by a very sluggish Corporate environment.

April (and May for that matter) has always been a quiet month on the catering side - don't know why. We've done all the usual things - ie. phone clients to check for problems, but it just seems that meetings are pretty scarce this time of year.

A juggling act

2006-04-27T17:22:00.000+01:00

I’ve had a really tough time over the past week. The first problem is that my little daughter seems to be a fly strip for any illness that’s going round at the nursery, and has a nice little trick of passing them directly to me. I’ve been sick, had a fever, been unable to move my neck, and have lost my voice all in 7 days.

Second, I’ve had some serious restaurant problems to resolve. At the moment I’m in fundraising mode, cashing in and redirecting funds left, right and centre. This is a true business skill – and one that any prospective businesses owner better get used to! Sales have remained lacklustre at our retail based shop – reflecting the trend of the past year. Leicester has become one big building site over the past few weeks because of a huge extension to the Shires shopping centre. Unfortunately the works have literally knocked down a couple of our major sources of customers, and has blocked access for others.

On the charity front I’m busier than ever gearing up for the launch. There’s still so much to do, but I actually feel like we’re slowly getting there. Version 1 of the application that will deliver the project is almost ready for testing, and is starting to look really good. The biggest areas of focus at the minute are sorting out our banking, and hooking up the donation systems. Internet merchant accounts are SO complicated. I also need to sort out the proper site hosting. A few companies I have been talking to have gone quiet which is making me uneasy.

Uneasy. That probably sums up my life.

A quiet Easter for Corporate Catering

2006-04-20T09:47:00.000+01:00

I've seen the first quiet period for a long time in the corporate catering world. March was our strongest ever month, but the Easter Bunny effect has taken a bit out of the April figures. It remains to be seen whether the last week of the month will see a pickup.

Tag: corporate catering

Recognising dyscalculia

2006-04-20T09:27:00.000+01:00

Since my first post about dyscalulia I have seen a pretty big spike in traffic. My general perception is that there are a whole load of people that are just hearing about the condition and something is ringing true with them. Most of the posts on dyscalculiaforum are from people that have just heard the word for the first time and are delighted to hear that they are not alone.

So anyway, the result is that lots of people are searching for information about the disorder (let's not call it a disease people!). When I was diagnosed back in 2000ish there wasn't a mention of it on the internet. Even just a year ago all we had were the the official dyscalculia sites, those boring looking websites that are as inhuman as they get.

Today we have a few really good sites that should start tell the human stories behind the problem - he kind of information that is so readily available for dyslexia today. My hope is that this swell in public interest (demonstrated by my increase in website traffic) will make its way into schools - which is where a difference can really be made.

Tag: dyscalculia

Mmm, Google Calendar

2006-04-13T20:43:00.000+01:00

Crap. I've just started using Outlook again because I needed to impose more structure on my life. I'm becoming so busy that I've even started to schedule telephone calls in advance, so I've blown the dust off the Outlook calendar and have spent a week in blissful organisation. My PDA and Outlook have been working in perfect harmony, working with Gmail in the background as a perfect online email filter and storage device - perfect. But then Google Calendar is launched, and by all accounts it's excellent. Now I'm going to have to rethink my system! I know what you're thinking - don't fix what aint broke - but new Google toys are such fun! Damn Google.

http://www.google.com/calendar/

Dyscalculia links

2006-04-12T14:17:00.000+01:00

Some useful links:

http://www.dyscalculiaforum.com
http://community.livejournal.com/dyscalculia/

Living with dyscalculia

2006-04-12T14:08:00.000+01:00

I was talking to a friend yesterday about dyscalculia, and how there are very few personal accounts of the problem available on the internet. They asked me whether I had written about it on my blog, and I realised I hadn’t.

As a quick intro, dyscalculia is a learning difficulty that affects mathematical ability. I’m no expert, so that might be slightly wrong, but I do know what it’s like to live with it.

In every other way I am a quick learner. I have good reading and writing ability, I am artistic and very creative. I’m a great problem solver, and don’t easily let thinks hold me back. But very early on in my life a contrast emerged. While I found other areas of learning quite easy, I had profound number blindness.

I have a total inability to mentally calculate. I have difficulty remembering numbers and, strangely, telling the time. Anyone who knows me will be familiar of my own particular brand of time telling (which I’ll elaborate on in a future post)!

I had just put it down to being bad at maths, but as I got older I started to wonder why it was that I couldn’t improve my mathematical ability. I’m the kind of person that loves self improvement. If I think I have a weakness I like to challenge it, but with numbers there’s a brick wall. Why was I the only person I knew that couldn’t remember a single telephone number?

Then, in a psychology seminar at university a lecturer mentioned dyscalculia. I immediately recognised the symptoms and contacted dyscalculia.org. I was very surprised to find out that I had an almost perfect case of the disorder.

Zero ability to mentally manipulate numbers (I can’t add 4 and 7 without fingers :)
Difficulty with time and schedules
Inability to retain abstract mathematical concepts
Poor name/face retrieval
Switching numbers

Like suffers of all learning difficulties I’ve learnt coping strategies. I always carry a calculator, have mastered the use of excel, and have a wonderful system for telling the time. I’m just lucky that I haven’t attached shame to the condition, like so many people do.

If you’re looking for more on the condition, start with http://www.dyscalculia.org/. I’ll also be posting some more links as I find them, as well as going into some more detail about my daily confrontations with the problem.

Tag: dyscalculia

Launch in sight

2006-04-08T15:16:00.000+01:00

The reason for my two month absence has been the growing demands of the charity project and the huge impact it has been having on my life! There simply aren’t enough hours in the day…

Sorry to anyone that’s emailed me recently and is still awaiting a reply. Over the past couple of months there have been times when I’ve felt that this project was falling apart, and times when it has raced ahead. Now I can safely say that we are well on the way to the official launch on June 1st. Some of the support I have received has been extraordinary, so thank you to everyone who has rallied behind us.

We’re at an interesting point right now. More and more people are becoming aware of the project, whether it be through potential sponsors or the charities. The test website is receiving greater and greater levels of traffic which is a bit worrying as we have almost two months to go before official launch, and I’m getting increasingly nervous of a leak.

The main aims now are to get some of the funding in to the bank so that we can building up to the launch. Anyone who’s started a business or social project will know that turning theoretical funding into hard cash is one of the most difficult jobs of all!

Nice one Google – PR5

2006-03-29T09:55:00.000+01:00

Now you need to be a bit of a nerd to follow Page Rank. No disrespect intended, but some people are obsessed by this little number. In fairness, it can mean a huge difference to website traffic, and for many people that means £££$$$.

Anyway, I’m very pleased that Google has bumped up this site to a PR5. Cheers Google.

The more you donate, the less likely it will be accepted?

2006-02-03T19:41:00.000Z

How hard is it to donate £5 million to charity? We are now four weeks into the new project and the operational side is starting to come together. We have some technical support, some celebrity support, some media support, but the most difficult people to persuade are the charities that will ultimately benefit.

You see, in order to raise the £5 million (yes, it’s increased again) we are staging a large international event that will cost around £200k in overheads. So that we can donate every penny of every donation to the five charities, we need corporate sponsorship to cover those running costs. That’s the problem. Every charity has a list of companies they won’t work with, because they are ethically apposed to them. So a list of blacklisted companies x 5 is quite a big list. Until we can persuade each charity that an objectionable businesses is not connected with the project they will not endorse us.

This was not on my list of potential problems when I started on this journey, but hey, live and learn.

January Retail Sales : was I right? Of course!

2006-02-02T09:19:00.000Z

Early indications are that UK retail sales slumped in January. Figures from the Confederation of British Industry confirm that spending was down much further than has been predicted. It’s a pattern I predicted, and have seen with my own shops. The general consensus however remains positive, although it is probably the usual ‘talk down the problems and nobody dare say the world reces***n’.

John Longworth, Asda's director and chairman of the CBI's DTS panel, said, "As retailers had feared the spending surge seen in December was short-lived and not sustained into the New Year. However, sales in January were the least negative for eight months, with the exception of Christmas. Looking ahead, expectations for growth are the strongest since May but sales remain heavily dependent on price discounts and promotions."

More here

SEOsoftware.net has finally gone

2006-01-29T20:32:00.000Z

Incidentally, SEOsoftware.net was finally relocated to its new owner today. She has officially gone! I will keep a link on this site for a while as Ray (the new owner) is a good guy and I want to send him as much traffic as I can.

Dreading the week ahead?

2006-01-29T20:21:00.000Z

I’ve had one of those introspective days today, thinking about the week ahead. Trouble is, from where I’m standing I just can’t imagine the end of it.

The restaurants are causing most of the problems. It’s that week in the month when major payments leave the bank account – meaning we will be naturally low on cash. But it’s also that week in the quarter when lots of money needs to be found (rent etc…) which is a bigger problem. I always get pretty down when I feel that everyone I speak to is someone looking for a cheque – hence the introspective mood and negative post!! A call to the bank will be my first task tomorrow!

On top of that, I need to make some major progress with the new project this week or it is going to falter. Last week was not productive enough. We need that first breakthrough, that first piece of the puzzle. It’s really difficult keeping a team motivated in the early stages of a venture when there is nothing concrete for them to hold on to. I am naturally a very motivated person, but I’m aware that so many people find it difficult to focus, and will naturally drift without daily guidance during the early days.

My problem this week is that the pressure of the restaurant situation is going to hamper my efforts with the project. I just don’t think there will be enough of me to spread around to keep the whole show going.

Do or die?

2006-01-27T09:23:00.000Z

Every project reaches a do-or-die moment. Has the venture gain enough support? Are the figures looking viable? Is it time to pull the plug?

This is one of the greatest skills for a businesses person or entrepreneur to master. Entrepreneurs are typically taking risks, and those risks often tied up with their own personal lives. Knowing when to walk away before a doomed project has started can mean the difference between bankruptcy and limitless wealth. Not easy for a natural optimist!

So my current project has reach do-or-die day 1. Today I will gather all the information I have acquired so far, will speak to each member of the team, and make a decision. Of course, should we proceed there will be further opportunities to pull the plug, but this is the first real opportunity to asses the project from the perspective of knowledge instead of pure passion.

It’s a balancing act. Having the courage to forge ahead where most others would falter, yet being realistic about the chances of success.

SEOsoftware.net sold

2006-01-23T15:33:00.000Z

I finally sold SEOsoftware.net for $7,200, which was a reasonable price considering past performance and future potential. I now have some wrapping up to do (transferring the site etc) but shouldn’t take more than a couple of weeks at most.

This is all part of the housekeeping operation necessary to allow me to focus on the big 2006 charity project. At the moment I have given Nic executive control of the restaurants, with only big issues coming to me.

Next step is a round of meetings in London, starting tomorrow morning. By the end of this week I will know whether the project is going to happen.

I’m pretty sad that the London whale so sadly died at the weekend – I was looking forward to saying hello. I’ve never seen a whale in the flesh, and I guess it will be a little while longer now before I do.

The team takes shape

2006-01-17T10:04:00.000Z

Right, I’ve been very busy putting together the initial team that will help me achieve my £1 million charity donation by December 31st. Our first strategy meeting took place yesterday, and I now have a long list of things to achieve within two weeks.

If in two weeks we don’t hit our targets the project will be dropped, so the next fourteen days are critical.

My list is:

Fine tune the project pitch and distribute to team members to use in emails etc.
Find a production company that will follow us through the year, and produce the final television show on December 31st
Conduct initial research into corporate sponsorship that will cover the projects running costs

The project that will actually raise the £1 million is top secret, and must remain so until March.

New Years Resolutions?

2006-01-14T13:19:00.000Z

So how are you doing with the New Year’s Resolutions? I’ve been working hard on mine, and have actually started letting people know what it is.

2005 was a year of very hard work for me. I was totally obsessed with building my businesses and kinda neglected everything else. The birth of my daughter Ava has sharply refocused my thinking, and over Christmas my world seemed to change.

I’ve decided to bring back the real me in 2006. Along with the gross profit margins, sales and accounts that usually occupy my mind I am going to bring back creativity, passion and fun.

Nothing will get me back to my old self like a new project, so I’ve set one. A big one. In 2006 I’m going to try and raise £1 million pounds for charity.

I’ve spent the first half of January coming up with ideas, and I now think I’ve got it. In fact I think it is such a good idea that I can’t stop thinking about it.

So now to the hard part. First I need to convince my wife, because her support will be crucial. Second, I need to approach some people (family, friends, friends of friends) that I have identified as key to this project. Then the fun begins.

UK retail sales: What a very merry Christmas, but bleak New Year?

2006-01-12T17:00:00.000Z

So its official, we people in retail land had a bumper Christmas – the best since 2001. According to the British Retail Consortium, like-for-likes were up 2.6% on 2004, showing the biggest monthly gain since May 2004.

How predictable then that the press are banging on about “the return of consumer spending” and speculation about an interest rate rise being back on the cards. Hold it boys. Look around. Where did all the shoppers go?

I don’t feel at all optimistic about consumer spending. Two days after Christmas and the stores were dead – you can see it in the figures and you can see it in the flesh. My prediction is that the first quarter of 2006 will be very very difficult for retailers. Christmas might have provided a temporary bonus, but the pickings weren’t good enough to last through to the spring. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a continuing rise in retail liquidations in early 2006.

It’s not all doom and gloom. There will be growth to be had I’m sure, but my money wont be on the high street this quarter.

Troubled Jumbo over London

2006-01-12T13:32:00.000Z

Bing Bong. We would like to thank all our passengers for flying with us today, and remind you that if you spot Heathrow out of your window please make yourself known to the captain.

I guess I could crow bar this post into the “Disaster planning” category, but it’s just one of those things that begs to be talked about.

A jumbo jet, loosing power and altitude, decides to fly backwards and forwards over central London looking for a safe place to land?

I’m not joking. These are actual quotes from today’s Times:

The captain made a U-turn over Reading and - without the appropriate maps -
decided to head back to Heathrow, which he had spotted out of the window
earlier.

and:

The aircraft performed a series of sharp turns over Central London as it fought
to gain height before reaching Heathrow.

A Web 2.0 entrepreneurial bubble?

2006-01-11T17:08:00.000Z

Following my post Online V’s Offline Entrepreneurs I have received a few messages about the possibility of a Web 2.0 bubble having formed. After digging around I’ve found quite a bit of commentary on the current state of play.

In a nutshell, Web 2.0 is made up of a group of technologies that make interactive applications and businesses possible via web delivery. For example, my restaurant company uses a Web 2.0 solution to deploy the financial, operational and personnel functions of the business online. My argument was that Web 2.0 has reduced the barriers to business for budding entrepreneurs, and therefore web businesses could provide a truer test of the entrepreneurial skill set than traditional business.

Now the theory being kicked about is that when barriers to entry become too low, and skills are abundant (web technology is maturing so there are plenty of experienced developers around), every man, woman and her dog sets up in business. Replication of ideas is huge, and there is an eventual crash.

Feeling is growing that a real entrepreneur bubble has developed. Blog posts such as The Web 2.0 Entrepreneur Bubble are rife. It is certainly true that the “become a website entrepreneur and earn $xxx,xxx” stories are growing, and so to are comparisons with the Internet investment bubble of the late nineties.

I kind-of agree with this scenario, but things are very different this time around. Web 2.0 can deliver real solutions to real businesses. In the 1999-2002 internet bubble many web based businesses were fighting over a non-existent customer bases. The web is now a maturing business medium and customer bases are proven.

But to be honest none of this talk bothers me. At some point, whether it be by bubble burst or natural shakeout, Web 2.0 businesses will fail because they have been set up without a true understanding of their markets by people that lack the skills to succeed. This is exactly the test I was referring to. The businesses that remain will be spearheaded by entrepreneurs that have started their business with less capital, from a huge diversity of backgrounds, and that represent a truer picture of modern entrepreneurialism than in bricks and mortar businesses.

Geese it's getting heavy around here.

If you want to read further into this, I would rather bizarrely recommend you read my name sakes blog (no relationship as far as I know): Paul Fisher, The coffee shops of Mayfair who goes into some detail on Web 2.0.

SEOsoftware.net sale heats up

2006-01-10T19:51:00.000Z

I’m now finalising the sale of SEOsoftware.net. After hundreds of requests for information I have narrowed it down to a handful of serious buyers. I’ve put a deadline of Thursday for bids, and then it will be gone.

I really have mixed feelings about letting this site go. It really is such a great site and it’ll be strange to see it continue to grow under new ownership, but it will free up some resources and allow me to properly focus on the new projects.

I always preach to people that ‘sentiment has no place in business’, i.e. emotional decisions are not business decisions, but it is still difficult to let something go after you have brought it into the world and fiercely guarded its integrity. Yes, I sound like a total sap talking about a website as if it’s a member of the family, and yes, it is only a relatively small site, but when you’re the kind of person that throws yourself into everything you do the outcome will always be the same.

If I'm honest with myself I actually think that there isn’t enough emotion in business, and despite preaching to the contrary I often make quasi-sentimental decisions at work. Perhaps a topic for debate?

Jabberwocky Restaurants December GPM on target for 65%

2006-01-10T13:38:00.000Z

I have finished the first round of number crunching for December. While sales were not as high as I would have liked, the GPM figure for December is currently calculated at 68%. I know this will come down a little as I am still expecting some invoices to come in, but we should be able to hit our target 65%.

This is excellent news. It means that our price adjustments, buying negotiations and new portioning look spot on – and that we will hit the 65% target for the first time - EXCELLENT!!!

On a negative note, we currently have several thousands of pounds of overdue catering invoices due to us that are starting to cause a real strain on cashflow. Every day I am chasing payment from these (usually) very reliable customers – I desperately need that money in the bank!!

Online V’s Offline Entrepreneurs

2006-01-10T01:18:00.000Z

Having spent the Christmas holidays with my head firmly in Web 2.0, detailing my new web based businesses, I had a sharp reality alignment today when I took my new little daughter into the two restaurants to meet the staff and catch up with Nic.

Apart from the cooing and inevitable crying, I spent much of my time chatting to the staff about issues and problems that they had, and dealing with mistakes that had been made. It made me realise how different online and offline businesses can really be, and got me thinking about the differences between online and offline entrepreneurs. The web has significantly reduced the barriers into business. Think about it:

It costs far less to establish a web based business than the average offline counterpart.
Legal matters online seem to less of an obstacle to business. You can buy an established online business without even dealing with a solicitor / lawyer, and yet the offline business world is plagued by ancient legal practices.
Businesses can be tested, closed, expanded and sold very quickly with relatively little risk.
Staffing in the real world can be a nightmare. I would estimate that 30% of my entire productive work time is spend dealing with staff. In my online businesses, most people are paid for what they produce. Freelancing is commonplace, and workforces expand and contract with workflow.

With it being so much easier to establish an online business my guess would be that the range of web orientated entrepreneurs is larger. This is a good thing, as money, status and every other variable are eliminated from the mix. It is a greater test of true entrepreneurial flare, because the many that enter are reduced to the few that succeed.

So another cheer for the web! But alas it’s back to the real world for me. I have a series of phone calls to make to try and sort some of these staff problems before I can get some real work done.

Following Google into the web application age?

2006-01-08T20:11:00.000Z

I was reading the Jason Calcanis blog entry speculating about Google’s plans for 2006. He makes some pretty convincing arguments for the Google-to-desktop-and-office argument.

While I don’t agree that this will all occur in 2006 (think usability, think capacity, think the Google Analytics problems), what interest me is that Google might well be viewing this as a future business model.

One of my secret projects (now was it x or y?) is an online application that would replace a desktop program. The fact that Google and Microsoft are heading their businesses in this direction excites my entrepreneurial mind because the possibilities of this kind of application are almost limitless (think of the number of specialist software applications that could be deployed through the web). OK, this is old news, but it is the thought of Google making this model work that excites me, because they obviously consider advertising to be a viable source of funding.

There are interesting times ahead, but for now there are more mundane things to occupy my mind. New January promotions are need finalising for the restaurants, and I still have the all-important December sales to calculate and study…

I won on Euromillions

2006-01-07T23:07:00.000Z

How cool. I have NEVER won anything on the lottery before, and then I went and got 3 numbers AND a lucky star on the £58 million EuroMillions lottery (06, 09, 26, 05). My winnings amounted to £16.10 which were promptly spend on a slap up dinner from Sainsbury's. Ahhh to be a winner...

SEOsoftware.net up for sale

2006-01-07T23:05:00.000Z

It’s only the first week of January but already I’m struggling. There just isn’t enough time in the day for all the things that are currently burning a hole through my head.

Over the Christmas break I decided to sell SEOsoftware.net. Despite enjoying the revenue, the financial demands of two restaurants and a baby mean that I need some short term cash. I also need to free up some time for another couple of big projects I am planning.

Project x and y (let’s imaginatively call them) are both web based b2b applications that I just hear the market crying out for. They are really exciting projects, but I need the time to consolidate my plans and set about finding a team to get them off the ground.

So it has to be good-bye to SEOsoftware. I posted the site on Digital Point and SitePoint forums this week, and have been dealing with a barrage of questions ever since. I am hoping that a deal will be struck by the end of next week, and the site will be completely transferred by the end of the month.

Counting the Christmas costs

2006-01-06T17:04:00.000Z

So Christmas is a distant memory and the business community is busy counting the costs, and profits, of the festive season. I will have to wait until next week before the final few cost figures are in before I can work out how Jabberwocky performed.

I didn’t escape the pressures of work over the break however. The Christmas post has delayed the payments of some of our larger corporate clients, and therefore some frantic phone calls to the bank were required to keep us on the straight and narrow.

Early signs are that Christmas was a mixed bag for the major retailers. The BBC have reported a pick up in sales http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3422499.stm, but I am more cautious. To me the high streets didn’t feel busy enough, and certainly our shops could have been busier. I look forward to the official stats later in the month.

Although I was expecting to have bumper sales at Jabberwocky, I had predicted that my web businesses would suffer in December. I was wrong. I sold a couple of hundred dollars worth of software on Christmas Day, which is strange considering we only sell b2b software.